1960's / Seasons and Moods

Summer Songs of the 1960s

randydafoe28 Comments
The Everly Brothers “Cathy’s Clown”

In 1960, The Everly Brothers “Cathy’s Clown” spent 5 weeks at #1 early in the summer. Then the made-for-summer song from Brian Hyland “Itsy Bitsy Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, hit #1 for just one week but it was in the top 10 for July and August and stayed in the top 20 into September for a total stint of 10 weeks. Billboard would select “I’m Sorry” by the 15-year-old Brenda Lee which hit #1 for 3 weeks and spent more weeks in the top five and top ten than any other song that summer.

In 1961, a man who literally ran away to join the circus, Bobby Lewis was at #1 for 7 weeks in July and August with “Tossin’ and Turnin’” and was the Billboard choice for song of the summer. Bobby’s original song was also named the #1 song for 1961. Also from that year, 55BS1S lists Chubby Checker‘s “Let’s Twist Again” on it’s list at #35. On Billboard it hit top 10, peaking at #5 that summer.

In 1962, Bobby Vinton’s “Roses are Red” was the Billboard selection and Neil Sedaka’s “Breaking up is Hard to Do” was another chart topper that summer. The 55BSS ranks Surf Guitar King Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” at #15 and the second instrumental on the list.

Dick Dale “Misirlou”

In 1963, recorded before he turned 13 on May 13th, by August Stevie Wonder hit #1 for 3 weeks with “Fingertips Part II” and is the Billboard Choice for that year. “Surf City” by Jan and Dean (sounds like the Beach Boys because it was co-written by Brian Wilson) was #1 for 2 weeks and is ranked #22 on 55BSS. “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave” by Martha and the Vandellas is ranked at #34 on the same list.

In 1964, “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas hit #2 on Billboard and #4 in the UK. Written by Marvin Gaye, Ivy Joe Hunter, and William Stevenson, 55BSS ranks this song as the #2 Greatest Song of Summer and one of the few artists to appear twice on the list.

“Under the Boardwalk” by The Drifters is ranked at #23 and Chad & Jeremy with “A Summer Song” at #52. The Billboard selection for that year was “Where Did Our Love Go” by the Supremes which was at #2 for 2 weeks in August.

In 1965, “California Girls” by The Beach Boys is ranked #7 overall on the 55BSS and peaked at #3 on Billboard in August. The Rolling Stones hit #1 for 4 weeks in July with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and they are the pick of the summer for Billboard Magazine.

In 1966, “Summer in the City” by Lovin’ Spoonful hit #1 on Billboard for 3 weeks and was ranked #10 on the 55BSS. Also from that year, “Sunny Afternoon” by the Kinks ranks at #44. Billboard’s song of summer is “Wild Thing” by The Troggs which charted #1 for 2 weeks. Other hot tunes were “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb and “Sunshine Superman” by Donovan.

In 1967, Billboard had “Light My Fire” by The Doors as the song of the summer. After 9 weeks on the charts it hit #1 at the end of July for the first of three weeks.

“Light My Fire” by The Doors

Also in 1967 Aretha Franklin’s “RESPECT” was still in the top 10 in July after 2 weeks at #1 in June. For 2 weeks before and another 2 after “RESPECT”, The Young Rascals hit #1 with “Groovin’” and along with three more songs, they were in the top 20 for 26 weeks. Also that summer, The Association preceded “Light My Fire” with “Windy” (#1 for three weeks).

Windy, Light My Fire, how often do you hear those words!

In 1968, Billboard’s choice is “This Guy’s in Love with You”, by Herb Alpert which was at #1 for 4 weeks. While Rolling Stone Magazine does not have a song from either 1967 nor 68 on their list, I think The Rascals (The Young Rascals prior to 1968) may have been overlooked. “People Got to be Free” was #1 for 5 weeks starting August 17. As just mentioned above, preceding their original “Groovin’” in 1967, The Rascals had a spring #1 hit in 1966 with a cover of Limmie Snell’s song “Good Lovin’”.

“Good Lovin’”

One of these days I’m thinkin’ I will do an ed. on all these apostrophe songs and maybe incl. abbreviated ones too!  Anyhow, “Good Lovin’” was ranked #333 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and along with “Groovin” appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Author Dave Marsh placed “People Got to be Free” at #237 in his book, Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time.

In 1969 we have “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and The Family Stone which is ranked #9 overall by the 55BSS. Billboard’s song is “In the Year 2525” by Zager & Evans. This to me is no comparison to Sly’s song, however it did spend 6 weeks at #1 in July and August. By summer’s end people were so sick of the overplayed song it dropped off the charts completely by September. I recall that my terrified ten-year-old brain thought this apocalyptic song was truly predicting the end of the world …”as we know it” but now “I feel fine”.

“Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and The Family Stone

  1. Rolling Stone Magazine list of The 55 Best Summer Songs of all Time. To simplify (my life anyway) I will shortform that to 55BSS and all references to a “ranked” song are from this list. ↩︎

28 thoughts on “Summer Songs of the 1960s”

  3. Wow, so many great songs on here – no wonder I love the ’60s as much as I do.

    Some of my all-time favorites from your post include the Everly Brothers’ “Cathy’s Clown”, Dick Dale’s “Misirlou”, The Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk”, The Supremes’ “Where Did Our Love Go”, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer In the City” (perhaps my favorite ’60s summer-themed song), The Kinks’ “Sunny Afternoon” and The Doors’ “Light My Fire Fire”.

    It doesn’t mean the rest is bad. But I also didn’t want to re-write your post! 🙂

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  4. All great songs, with the exception of “In The Year 2525”, which I cannot stand. To me, the ‘Songs of Summer’ should be songs about summer or with a summer vibe, not necessarily the biggest charting hit over the summer. But what do I know?

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    • Yes well Billboard has to protect its brand and of course their selection doesn’t go beyond the current year. The Rolling Stone 55 list gives your perspective. But you pointed out the interesting contrast. You don’t hear 2525 on the oldies rotation, I think a lot of people agree with you on that one.

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  5. Good songs all, but then I sort of lost my train of thought watching that blonde dancing her ass off in ‘Misirlou.’

    OK, now I’m focused again. ‘Good Lovin” is perfect exuberance at play, and if there is one bummer of a summer song ‘2525’ must be Number One, in the worst way. (Top marks for the wordplay today Randy. The ‘Light My Fire/Windy’ comment brought me back to being 12 years old and stupid again.)

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  6. A great list of tunes, Randy! I always thought that little intro to Tossin’ and Turnin’ was great, but almost every oldies station I worked at cut it and made it a cold intro starting with “I couldn’t sleep at all last night.” That really bugged me a lot!

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  7. Mighty good list. Whether coincidental or not a whole lot of those really just epitomized the summer sound (‘Hot fun in the Summertime’, ‘Summer in the City’ , ‘Dancing in the Streets’ etc). Funny the Beach Boys didn’t make more impact since they’re supposed to be the ultimate summer group.

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    • The Beach Boys songs must not have coincided with the summer chart s but you bring up a very good point. I focused on Billboard and the Rolling Stone Magazine lists, but now I need to zero in on that Beach Boys conundrum!

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  11. Hot Fun in the Summertime. Man, there’s a throwback tune. Caught some version of the Sly band here in town when they played a festival a few years back…they took the crowd right back to the late 60s early 70s. Good performance.

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